Broken
by tvnut014
Summary: Booth walks into Brennan's office one morning and sees that she has seemed to have cracked under pressure. Of course, we all know not everything is as it seems...Previously titled: Trial and Error


**_This started off as a drabble but of course ended up getting away on me... I don't plan on continuing this story, it was just something that popped into my head and it was one of those "what if..." things..._**

**_I haven't forgotten about Another Average Day in the Life of Seeley Booth, I have been so caught up with school, exams, and life that I am lucky to even be posting this right now!_**

**_Disclaimer: Must I be forced to repeat this over and over again? I don't own them!!! They aren't mine! If I knew another language I would repeat it in that language too... although then it would just start to get depressing..._**

**_Rating: T-for tiniest bit of language_**

**_Trial and Error_**

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"Hey Bones, what's up?" Booth asked almost cheerfully as he strolled into Brennan's office.

It had been a beautiful day that had started off with no paperwork and a brand new case that he knew she was going to enjoy solving.

Brennan was sitting at her desk, her head in her hands. She looked up when she he had spoken her name. She looked stressed, flustered, frazzled, but most of all scared.

Booth was actually relieved that she looked a bit stressed. He had always wondered if being a full-time forensic anthropologist and a best-selling author ever caught up to her some days. But her looking scared worried him. _What could she be scared about?_

"Hey, what's up?" he asked once more, gently. He walked up to her desk, placed the coffee and the case file he had brought along on it, and walked around to the other side where he then crouched beside her chair. "Hey what's wrong?" he asked.

Now that he was closer, he could see her eyes and nose were outlined with traces of red.

Like she had been crying.

"I… I was wrong." She looked away as she spoke, avoiding his eyes. This startled him. She was the most direct person he knew. If she was avoiding looking at him then something was most definitely wrong.

"Is it about the last case we worked? 'Cause I have to say Bones, it _was_ a tough case but you and the squints got every single scrap of evidence you could against the bastard. Now the rest is up to lawyers. You did as much as you could, that doesn't mean you were wrong."

She shook her head.

"Then what? Your father? Zack? Your editor's been giving you a hard time about your novel?" She shook her head at each suggestion. "You can easily talk to me, Bones."

Brennan was silent as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

He just about growled in frustration. He just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and make her tell him. Whatever it took.

He let out a breath. He knew better. She would tell him if and when she wanted to.

That still didn't mean that he couldn't keep trying to find out what was bothering her.

"Look, Bones," he took her chin firmly but gently between his index and thumb. He made her eyes meet his. "You're never wrong. As much as I'd hate to make that already gigantic ego of yours any bigger, you're never wrong. A little misguided at times, maybe, but not usually. The only thing that might seem you're a little bad at, are people skills. And so what? It's not your forte. Not _everyone_ is good at everything, Bones."

He gave her a crooked smile. Brennan returned a small one of her own. He continued. "You somehow are able to pick right through the exterior and see right to the core of people, Bones. In the cases we work together, you don't see why they did it, you see how and if they were able to. Sometimes, isn't that more important than a motive?"

Brennan gave Booth a small smile and took back her chin. "But you can't have one without the other to make a solid case, Booth."

Booth held up his hands. "Look, I'm not saying my half of our partnership isn't important, otherwise I'd be out of a job. I'm just trying to make the point that there is a very good chance that whatever you are worried you are wrong about, you actually aren't wrong about it at all. With you it's just trial and error, Bones. You always learn from your mistakes."

He paused.

"However, you _are_ wrong about being wrong. Does that make any sense?"

Brennan laughed. "Surprisingly, yes it does." She got up from her chair and noticed the case file sitting on the edge of her desk. "We have another case?" she asked looking down at Booth who was still in a catcher's position.

"Yup, there you go being right again. Now could you lend me a hand? I think I need a little bit of help here."

Brennan smiled as she held out a hand and helped him to his feet. "I think you may need more help than I can give you, Booth," she said with a look of total innocence on her face.

A grin broke across Booth's face. "Wow, Bones! I did not expect that one from you. What did I tell you?" Booth slung an arm across her shoulders. "Trial and error, Bones."

Brennan nodded in agreement and stepped away from him. "I attempted to 'zong' you last week, you corrected me, and I got you this week." She smiled.

Booth grinned crookedly. "Exactly, Bones. Though it's 'zing' not 'zong'. You zinged me."

"Yes I did." She responded.

They stood there together in her office grinning at each other.

In that moment, every thing was fine again. Back to normal.

Sadness crossed Brennan's features once more. She went and got her coat from the stand beside her door.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me what you were 'wrong' about?" Booth air-quoted the word 'wrong'.

Brennan took a breath and looked up into Booth's warm, trusting brown eyes.

She opened her mouth to speak.

"I was wrong when-"

A flash of gold made her stop.

She knew what the flash was from.

It had been the sunlight coming from the window that looked into the rest of the lab. One ray of sunlight that had reflected off of the ring that was resting on the third finger of Booth's left hand. The one that would presumably stay for the rest of his life.

She had wanted to say so many things at that moment. She knew her words wouldn't have been able to change anything, even if she had spoken them out loud. Her words hadn't seemed to have any effect in her novels.

When Andy had gotten engaged in her book, Kathy had been extremely torn up about it. She had been exhibiting signs of anger, sadness, and depression. Andy had taken notice and asked Kathy about what was going on. Kathy ended up telling him that she loved him. Andy realized that he loved her too and had broken off the engagement, though it had only been two days away.

Brennan had always been told that an author revealed parts of themselves in their novels. She thought that if she deliberately wrote something that was meant to be revealed, he would have realized.

He hadn't.

If she said the words that she wanted to, they would only make things inconceivably worse than they already were.

Booth was right. She didn't know motive, but she sure as hell knew cause and effect.

"Bones, what were you wrong about?" Booth's voice brought her back to reality.

"I…"

_I was wrong when I said I didn't love you. _

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_**Read and Review! Pretty please! With an ice cream sundae? Shared with David Boreanaz? Please?**_


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